Judge, ex-D.A. ordered to testify on alleged relationship

Attorneys for man on death row say the two had a relationship while he was on trial

SCHUYLER DIXON, Associated Press

Published 5:30 am, Tuesday, September 9, 2008

MCKINNEY — The judge and prosecutor from a condemned man's murder trial were ordered Monday to testify under oath about allegations that they were romantically involved during the case.

The state district court ruling two days before convicted killer Charles Dean Hood's scheduled execution stemmed from requests by his attorneys to investigate claims of an improper relationship between retired state District Judge Verla Sue Holland and former Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell.

The deposition for O'Connell began in a jury room shortly after District Judge Greg Brewer's ruling Monday afternoon. Holland's deposition was scheduled for this morning.

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Hood's attorneys also were working to postpone his execution in order to have more time to pursue their claims of judicial bias.

They filed a request for a stay of execution and also asked Gov. Rick Perry to grant a 30-day reprieve.

Hood is a former bouncer at a topless club who was 20 when he was arrested in Indiana in the fatal shootings of Tracie Lynn Wallace, 26, an ex-dancer, and her boyfriend, Ronald Williamson, 46, at Williamson's home in Plano in 1989.

Rate of recusal

Brewer's decision to order depositions came after a federal judge stymied attempts by attorneys for Holland and O'Connell to move the case to federal court. Over the weekend they filed motions that took the case out of Brewer's hands.

Bill Boyd, Holland's attorney, said he believed Hood's attorneys intended to pursue a federal claim that Hood's civil rights were violated. U.S. District Judge Richard Schell agreed with Hood's attorneys that their request was a preliminary step that should remain in state court. Schell sent the case back to Brewer.

In a filing for a stay of execution with the Court of Criminal of Appeals in Austin, Hood's attorneys claimed that between 1997 and 2001 — when Holland served on the appeals court — she recused herself in four of every five cases from Collin County. That's where O'Connell was district attorney and where she had been a trial judge.

"Judge Holland's recusing herself at a rate nearly 160 times more than her fellow jurists cries out for an explanation," the filing stated. "The simplest explanation is the most plausible one: Judge Holland recused herself at such an off-the-charts rate because she had previously been romantically involved with (O'Connell)."

Timing questioned

Gregory Wiercioch, one of Hood's attorneys, used that argument in presenting his case to Brewer. Boyd countered that the defense had 18 years to raise the issue and questioned the timing.

Hood, 39, was scheduled to die June 17, but his lethal injection, delayed by numerous last-day appeals, was halted because prison officials said they didn't have enough time to follow proper procedures before the execution warrant expired at midnight.

Hood has maintained his innocence. He was driving Williamson's $70,000 Cadillac at the time of his arrest. Fingerprint evidence tied him to the murder scene. Hood contended his prints were at Williamson's home because he was living there and said that he had permission to drive the car.

Evidence also tied Hood, who had served two years in an Indiana prison for passing bad checks, to the rape of a 15-year-old girl.